Due to the recent announcement by the World Health Organization (WHO) which stated that it may be too early to categorize Covid-19 as an endemic within this year, Dr. Opas Karnkawinpong, Director-General of the Department of Disease Control, responded that the Ministry of Public Health is not against the announcement. He said the ministry did not mean to categorize Coronavirus as an endemic immediately. He stressed the disease can only become an endemic when it has less severity, when people’s immunity rises significantly, and when the country’s medical system is highly capable of handling it.
According to Dr. Opas, Thailand will consider Covid-19 an endemic when the fatality rate is low and controllable, and when people strictly follow the VUCA measures. VUCA stands for vaccine, universal prevention, Covid free setting, and ATK.
“We expect the disease will become endemic this year, not today or tomorrow. Different countries have different roadmaps and maybe against WHO’s announcement. UK and USA also predicted that Covid-19 may soon become endemic,” said Dr. Opas.
He added Thailand is quite ahead of WHO and many countries in many things such as cross-vaccination, the country’s reopening, Phuket sandbox, and possibly this time the endemic forecast.
“We are not against anyone. Our decisions depend on the country’s context,” said Dr. Opas. (NNT)
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